FaceBank Buying Fubo In Latest Digital Media Merger

FaceBank Group, a celebrity and sports-focused virtual entertainment company announced Monday it’s buying live streaming platform fuboTV to create a new entity called fuboTV Inc, based in New York and led by fuboTV CEO David Gandler.

Gandler said the merged company, which is currently traded on the OTC (or-over the-counter market) plans to accelerate its timing to uplist to a major stock exchange “as soon as practicable.”

The purchase price wasn’t specified and the companies said additional announcements regarding management structure and the Board of Directors will be forthcoming.

The deal will a leading digital entertainment company, combining fuboTV’s direct-to-consumer live TV streaming platform for cord-cutters with FaceBank’s technology-driven IP in sports, movies and live performances. FuboTV said it plans to leverage FaceBank’s IP sharing relationships with leading celebrities and other digital technologies to enhance its sports and entertainment offerings.

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They anticipate the merger will position fuboTV to continue its global expansion with FaceBank’s Nexway AG, a global ecommerce and payment platform with a business presence in 180 countries, accepting payments in roughly 140 currencies. FuboTV has committed to global expansion and in 2018 entered Europe with its launch in Spain.

“The business combination of FaceBank Group and fuboTV accelerates our ability to build a category defining company and supports our goal to provide consumers with a technology-driven cable TV replacement service for the whole family,” said Gandler. “In current COVID-19 environment, stay-at-home stocks make perfect sense – we plan to accelerate our timing to uplist to a major exchange as soon as practicable. We look forward to working with John and his team of creative visionaries,” he added, referring to Facebank co-founder Joh Textor.

“As a tech-driven IP company, FaceBank was looking to find the perfect delivery platform for its celebrity and consumer driven content, with a dynamic user interface that could support the global consumers’ rapidly evolving practices of content consumption, said Textor and co-founder Alex Bafer.